Ask Me Help Desk - UK is officially a NO FLY ZONE

UK is officially a NO FLY ZONE

Due to a "small" volcanic eruption in Iceland UK airspace has been closed to all traffic since early this morning and is likely to stay that way until Friday at least.

The Icelandic vulcanologists are worried that this eruption is a precursor of worse to come. Historically when this volcano has erupted it has triggered a larger event in a neighbouring system. This has the potential of causing even worse disruption.

As ever the BBC has some good coverage on this. The videos are worth watching.
BBC News - Icelandic volcanic ash alert grounds UK flights

And now for the science part: BBC News - Prof Peter Sammonds: The science behind ash cloud
BBC News - Volcanic ash 'very hazardous' to aircraft

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx9QQU5bU8I

The BBC vids may not work in your country.
Good coverage on YouTube.
YouTube - iceland volcano

The Goracle is absolutely orgasmic watching the Eyjafjallajokull glacier melt.

Iceland is having a heck of a year. 1st they go bankrupt with the subsequent Icesave dispute;and the Icelandic debt repayment referendum voted down by 93% of the voters...

And now the tourist industry they were counting on is going up in smoke.

I remember watching one of those Mayday Discovery shows about a plane downed by ash in the turbines.

I have heard we are only five major volcanic eruptions away from permanent winter so let's ask ourselves how close we are

18 Active Volcanos
EGON
Flores Island (Indonesia)
(-8.67, 122.45)
ETNA
Sicily (Italy)
(37.734, 15.004)
EYJAFJOLL
Southern Iceland
(63.63, -19.62)
GAUA
Banks Islands (SW Pacific)
(-14.27, 167.5)
MIYAKE-JIMA
Izu Islands (Japan)
(34.079, 139.529)
REDOUBT
Southwestern Alaska
(60.485, -152.742)
REVENTADOR
Ecuador
(-0.077, -77.656)
ARENAL
Costa Rica
(10.463, -84.703)
BATU TARA
Komba Island (Indonesia)
(-7.792, 123.579)
DUKONO
Halmahera
(1.68, 127.88)
KARYMSKY
Eastern Kamchatka
(54.05, 159.45)
KILAUEA
Hawaii (USA)
(19.421, -155.287)
KLIUCHEVSKOI
Central Kamchatka (Russia)
(56.057, 160.638)
POPOCATEPETL
México
(19.023, -98.622)
RABAUL
New Britain
(-4.271, 152.203)
SAKURA-JIMA
Kyushu
(31.585, 130.657)
SHIVELUCH
Central Kamchatka (Russia)
(56.653, 161.36)
SOUFRIERE HILLS
Montserrat
(16.72, -62.18)

Quote:

Flights across the UK are to remain grounded for a second day as volcanic ash from Iceland drifts across Europe.

At 0230BST, the air traffic control body Nats extended its unprecedented restrictions on most flights into and out of the UK until at least 1900.

Well that's us scuppered then ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomder55

The Goracle is absolutely orgasmic watching the Eyjafjallajokull glacier melt.

Iceland is having a heck of a year. 1st they go bankrupt with the subsequent Icesave dispute;and the Icelandic debt repayment referendum voted down by 93% of the voters .....

and now the tourist industry they were counting on is going up in smoke.

Look who would want to go there anyway, they should find some place else to live

Yeah go back to Scandanavia where they came from!

Damn glad I'M not traveling internationally right now...

I feel for those people stranded in foreign airports.

Here's some more food for thought
Supervolcanoes - where are they likely to occur?

Guess I got to cancel that trip to Yellowstone.

Hope Mt St Helen remains stable through the summer so I can hike around Mt Ranier in peace.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomder55

guess I gotta cancel that trip to Yellowstone.

Hope Mt St Helen remains stable through the summer so I can hike around Mt Ranier in peace.

If it is a volcano I would stay away from it, they have a nasty habit of triggering each other

Well still completely closed down.
That's SIX days now and it's costing the industry upwards of $200 million a day!
BBC News - Flight ban extended to sixth day

I see the fleet did a 21st century version of Dunkirk.

Forget air transportation. This gave my vendors another excuse to delay delivery of product.

Suddenly the risk is no so great and they will fly despite the ash cloud. I expect it will be seen as an act of God when an aircraft crashes instead of an act of stupidity. All this proves is the mighty dollar rules.

We should be thinking about the implications of this for the weather and global warming/cooling. It has provided an instant solution to global warming for the time being and recent reports suggest the ash cloud will soon reach Canada. I see a revival on the horizon for high speed trains

This stinks ,we're looking at a Krakatoa summer just as I was getting ready to plant my garden.

Quote:

I see a revival on the horizon for high speed trains

Revival ? There can' t be a revival if it never was established in the 1st place.This country will never buy into high speed rail even though I wish there was more freight delivered by rail.

Cool visual: http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/smoke.gif

Quote:

Originally Posted by KeepItSimpleStupid

Cool visual: http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/smoke.gif

Yes pretty pictures but was this real or a mathematical simulation?

In retrospect ;was there an over reaction ? De Spiegel and the Telegraph look at the events with 20/20 hindsight.
Eyjafjallajökull Awakes: How an Icelandic Volcano Shut Down Europe's Airspace - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

Volcanic ash: cloud of uncertainty - Telegraph
The ironic thing is that the computer projections were much more dire than what really occurred . Sort of like the AGW computer models.
Is this over reaction the result of the Western world becoming too risk adverse ?

Max Hastings thinks so.

Quote:

Extravagant responses to risk are a bane of our times. In 1988, health minister Edwina Currie almost destroyed Britain's egg industry when she said that salmonella in eggs might cause a human catastrophe - only for it to be later discovered that salmonella could not get into eggs.
In 1996, Britain spent £7 billion killing millions of the nation's cows in response to the alleged threat of CJD killing humans eating burgers made from cattle infected by BSE. We now know that the likelihood of this was almost infinitesimally slight.
In 2009, the government spent £1 billion on unneeded vaccines against swine flu, which we were told might kill half a million people. The SARS virus, said some 'experts', could prove more devastating to humanity than Aids. It was once suggested that bird flu might kill 150 million people worldwide.
Back to transport. After 9/11, many Americans were reluctant to fly, so drove to their destinations instead. One statistical analysis suggests that 2,500 extra road deaths ensued. Flying would have been much safer.
The British are grotesquely sensitive to rail accidents, though figure show that train travel is by far the safest means of going anywhere.

Iceland volcano eruption: The price we pay for a society that overreacts to risk | Mail Online

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomder55

The ironic thing is that the computer projections were much more dire than what really occured .

They used visuals from pilots flying their routes. Did you want to take a chance having your turbine engine aspirate ash at 30,000 feet?